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Manage local snapshots overview

Contributors netapp-aaron-holt netapp-lenida netapp-thomi netapp-aherbin

A snapshot is a read-only, point-in-time image of a volume. The image consumes minimal storage space and incurs negligible performance overhead because it records only changes to files since the last snapshot.

You can use a snapshot to restore the entire contents of a volume, or to recover individual files or LUNs. snapshots are stored in the directory .snapshot on the volume.

In ONTAP 9.3 and earlier, a volume can contain up to 255 snapshots. In ONTAP 9.4 and later, a FlexVol volume can contain up to 1023 snapshots.

Note

Beginning with ONTAP 9.8, FlexGroup volumes can contain 1023 snapshots. For more information, see Protect FlexGroup volumes using snapshots.